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Physicians formula healthy foundation

The Physicians Formula Healthy Foundation was the foundation from the drugstore that created the most curiosity for me because of its claims and the allure of the doe-foot applicator which reminded me of the large applicator trend in high makeup. I am always on the hunt for lovely, lightweight sheer foundations. I don’t wear foundation on the daily but it is always fun to try things out and let’s be real writing about foundations is one of my favourite things to to do.

The claims: “What It Is: A long-wearing, buildable, and breathable foundation that provides lightweight, medium coverage with a healthy, satin finish. Why It’s Good For You: Compatible with all skin types and featuring our exclusive Brightening Complex and hyaluronic acid to hydrate, brighten and improve the appearance of skin tone. Added boost of Vitamins A, C & E provides a flawless, healthy coverage”

This foundation for me is a lighter to medium coverage, but I also don’t wear a ton of it either. I mainly put it on spots and redness. I like a foundation that maintains the glow and that my skin shines through. This foundation definitely makes your skin look and feel healthy. I find that it doesn’t make my skin itchy, and wears well throughout the day.

This foundation creates a silky satin finish and reminds me of the body shop fresh nude foundation. The application with a brush is surprisingly just a glowy as the application with a sponge. I got LN3 which is actually a really good colour match. It’s not too yellow and it’s not too pink just the right colour. A huge issue in this range and with Physicians formula, in general, is the shade range. I find they rarely have more than 6, and this range at 12 shades which is 6 more but could still be a lot more expansive. The shades are also literally all shades of beige except for maybe the last four shades.

Brush side – just after application

Sponge side – just after application

The price: this foundation retails for $20.99 CAD atShoppers Drug Mart,where everything is always more pricey than say a Walmart. Physicians Formula has always been a more expensive drugstore brand. I will say though, this foundation is one of the least irritating that I’ve worn from the drugstore. I find my skin doesn’t get any weird small bumps (looking at you Covergirl) and it creates a lovely glowy canvas. I don’t find myself setting this foundation, but I don’t set anything. I find that it powders go over this foundation well and that it lasts well throughout the day. It also doesn’t cake up or make my face itchy.

Overall ratings: 4.5/5. I dock points again for shade range. I think that if you can find your shade, this foundation is really nice from the drugstore. However, we live in a post Fenty area where 12 shades for a foundation just does not cut it with consumers. While I love this foundation, it is because I am able to find my shade. I rated it so high because it does not irritate my skin, it s a good shade match, and it creates a nice sheer glowy finish and is easily build up to be medium coverage.

Like this:

In the name of science, I decided that for the month of April I would use all drugstore makeup for a month. In doing so I kept all my project pan items the same – such as the body shop foundation which is mid-range as well as my pan that palette, palettes, but other than that I switched out my normal high and low routine, for all drugstore affordable products. I Kept my skincare routine basically the same. I did get two new cleansers and a new moisturizer. I also added a new face oil, but that only made my skin feel better. I wanted to say that normally I switch between the IT Cosmetics CC cream and the Benefit foundationas well as my Body shop foundationand my Andalou Naturals cc cream, with a smattering of the Maybelline BB Cream in there. I know – I keep it wild. My reasoning for this project was mainly for the foundations. I wanted to see what would happen to my skin if I used only drugstore foundations, powders, concealers for a month. Mostly – I was curious about the effects of the wide range of foundations I owned price wise.

My skin before the whole experiment taken on April 1st.

Day 2: new pimples have popped up. Literally, the day after I began using the Covergirl Outlast Active foundation I got new spots. This is the thing – I wanted to make a more inexpensive drugstore foundation work which I why I used the CoverGirl and theRimmel breathable foundation for the first half of the month. But, my skin just did not react well. Which is extremely frustrating because makeup should be accessible and affordable and not give your skin wild reactions. While most young people have great skin and don’t need foundation, I am fully aware that teenagers want to wear foundation and yet the foundations they can afford are clogging their sweet young pores.

Day 3

By day 3 I had sprouted new friends on my chin. Alas, I was still using the CoverGirl and Rimmel foundation. I had bought the ELF BB Cream which I actually quite like and doesn’t irritate my skin so that will be on my rotation for after May. I noticed an improvement after I started using the BB Cream and then just using concealer.

Day 15 – a bit more congested than usual, lots of redness and spots.

By day 15, halfway through the month my skin was visibly more textured and had small breakouts – bare in mind when I used the Burt’s bees foundation for my skin drastically improved. When I returned to the Maybelline BB cream and Covergirl foundation my skin then turned slightly red and those small breakouts returned. At this point, I decluttered the Rimmel and Covergirl foundations that I knew were causing this and switched to only using the Maybelline BB Cream, and the Burt’s Bees Foundation.

The Last day of the experiment. A few spots but looking a lot less congested

At the end of the month, you can see that my skin had improved – there are a few uncharacteristic spots around my mouth and on my forehead that I never get. However, this was only because I was gifted the Burt’s Bees foundation that is a clean foundation and I bought the Physicians formula healthy foundation that is $20 CAD which resulted in my skin healing. I also was using myL’Oreal shaping stickfoundation that has never irritated my skin and is also $20 CAD. As someone who loves affordable makeup but also loves skincare, it is interesting to see the difference in using more expensive products from the drugstore that give my skin a better reaction than that of the less expensive foundations you can find at the drugstore.

This experiment really taught me the value of ingredients in foundations. CoverGirl by far had the most ingredients but that doesn’t mean they aren’t bad – it just means my skin might react to those differences but other peoples skin might be totally fine. What I did find was that the drugstore does concealer formula’s very well. I know in theory they should be similar formulas to foundations but I found that theMaybelline Instant Age Rewindand the Joe Fresh illuminating concealer were wonderful.

In the name of science, my conclusion is that my skin prefers higher end base products but can handle the powders at the drugstore which tend to not give my skin a reaction – however, I do use the more expensive drugstore products so that is defiantly a factor.

Look out for the end of May when I post about my high-end makeup every day and see the results of my skin then!